My Mother Cut Me Apart For My Sister Chapter 02

My Mother Cut Me Apart For My Sister Chapter 02

I didn’t.

She told me she wanted a truce. Swore she’d stop framing me. We were walking together when she grabbed my wrist and hurled herself toward an oncoming truck.

I yanked her back. Nearly dislocated my own shoulder doing it. The second she was out of danger, her face crumpled and she turned straight to the cameras that were conveniently rolling.

“If you hate me that much, Stella, just say it! You don’t have to kill me!”

Half a dozen angles. Every single one caught her tear-streaked face in perfect focus.

Mom hesitated, then deleted the message one letter at a time. She typed something new instead.

[Still trying to ruin Chloe’s life? Why couldn’t you have actually died!]

Between the possibility that Chloe had hired a hitman and the possibility that I’d staged my own death to frame her — Mom didn’t even hesitate. She chose the second.

I stood right in front of her, shaking my head. Mom, I’m really dead. I didn’t frame her. I never did.

Mom, don’t you remember? You peeled my skin back with your own hands. It hurt so much, Mom. It hurt so much.

Can you hold me? Just one more time, the way you used to when I was little?

We were standing in the same room, but she couldn’t hear me. Just like the last twelve years we’d spent under the same roof — she never could.

Mom looked up at Victor, her eyes harder than before. “Stella lives in a high-security penthouse. There’s no way you ever got near her.”

“Spit it out. Did you make up this hundred-and-twentieth victim or not?”

Victor pulled something from his pocket, turning it over in his fingers. “She lives in a penthouse? That’s hilarious. The girl I found couldn’t even afford a meal.”

“I told her to get on her knees and I’d give her a hot meal.” His grin widened. “She dropped instantly. Like a dog. I cracked her across the head before she even looked up.”

“Went through her pockets after. Nothing on her worth taking — except this.” He held up a gold bracelet.

“Broke as she was, she still wouldn’t sell it.” He clicked his tongue. “Stubborn.”

Mom saw the bracelet. Her nails dug into the armrest until her knuckles went white, and a vein pulsed at her temple. “Where did you get that?”

That bracelet was the birthday gift she gave me. Or rather — the one she’d bought for Chloe first.

Chloe took one look at it and called it tacky. So Mom tossed it to me as an afterthought. It was the only gift I’d had in years.

When I left, I took nothing else. Just that bracelet. Mom froze when she saw me grab it, and something passed through her eyes — guilt, maybe, or something close to an apology. I never figured out which.

Victor closed his eyes, leaned back, and started whistling. Like the courtroom was boring him.

“I asked you a question!” Mom’s voice cracked through the room. “Where did you get that bracelet?”

He didn’t even open his eyes.

She forced herself steady, then sent Chloe a text: [Has she been taking the twenty thousand a month I told you to send her?]

Chloe replied instantly: [Of course, Mom. You know Stella — she’d never turn down free money. I checked her Instagram and she’s been flying all over the place. Living her best life lol]

She attached screenshots of each monthly transfer. A moment later, another message — a screenshot of my Instagram feed.

The girl in the photo wore a bikini top and a carefree smile, draped between shirtless men on some beach in the Sapphire Islands. Posted yesterday.

No, Mom. That photo isn’t real. It’s AI-generated.

I never got a single dollar. For the first three months after I left, I slept on the street. I dug through dumpsters behind diners just to survive.

Mom switched off her phone with one sharp jab and muttered, her voice dripping with disgust. “You put him up to this. Another one of your pathetic pity plays.”

Victor watched her with something almost like pity. Online, the story was already spreading. A trending hashtag appeared within minutes:

[#StellaFrameJob — Disgraced starlet teams up with serial killer to destroy Chloe]

The chat flooded with fresh venom: [Stella hasn’t changed one bit lmao!! Teaming up with a MURDERER to set up Chloe??]

[She’s actually insane. Poor Chloe must have put up with so much over the years]

Victor glanced at the chat and burst out laughing. “Chloe is kind? You’re all beyond gullible. She’s got every single one of you fooled.”

“When I found Stella, she was staying in a volunteer dormitory in Pine Ridge — teaching kids.” His smile went thin. “You want to know what she begged me for? She didn’t beg for her life.”

“She begged me to keep it quiet. So the children wouldn’t hear.”

“I’ve killed a lot of people. Every single one screamed for help. She’s the only one who asked me not to scare the kids.”

“Honestly? I almost felt bad. Almost gave her a quick death.” He leaned forward. “But your angel Chloe? She wanted it slow. She paid me to peel the skin off that girl while she was still breathing—just to watch her suffer.”

Mom sank back in her chair, eyes narrowed. “Is this another story the two of you rehearsed? Did she find you just to build a case against Chloe?”

Victor lunged forward against his restraints, laughing. “You don’t know? You honestly don’t know?”

His laughter died into something almost like wonder. “The body you cut apart that night — the one in the black bag, the one you cut into pieces with your own hands — that was your daughter.”

“If you don’t believe me — go to Pine Ridge. She was teaching there.”

“Inside the shallow grave—the one where I buried the garbage bags Chloe brought back—there’s still a piece of bone. One the stray dogs didn’t get.” His voice dropped. “And the cut marks on it will perfectly match your blade.”

“Dr. Hayes.” He smiled, slow and wide. “I can’t wait to see what you do next.”